West Park colors historical battle

Pink signs support preservation district. Yellow signs disapprove.

Allentown

West Park, a quiet, middle-class neighborhood not far west of center city Allentown, is in the midst of a small civil war.

No bullets or artillery are being exchanged. Petitions, fliers, signs and accusations have been the weapons of choice in this feud among neighbors.

The battle lines are drawn over West Park Civic Association's desire to create a historic district of the 350 buildings that immediately surround Allentown's oldest planned park.

Supporters of the proposal are showing it with a pink sign in their windows. Opponents have posted yellow signs in theirs.

At 7:15 tonight in council chambers, City Council's Community Development Committee will discuss the proposal for a second time. Opponents of the proposal say they will bring a large crowd.

The committee already passed the ordinance along favorably to full council in October. But when City Council, at its first November meeting, considered adoption, several people spoke up.

Some claimed they were not aware of the effort to turn a portion of the West Park neighborhood into a historic district. Opponents brought along a petition with 114 signatures.

Council tabled the vote and scheduled tonight's committee meeting as a mechanism for answering questions about the historic district.

If the 350-home portion of West Park is given the historic district designation, all external modifications to homes would be subject to review by the Allentown Historical and Architectural Review Board.

The board, composed of architects, a general contractor, city staff and residents of the two existing districts -- Old Allentown and Old Fairgrounds -- has a mission to protect the original aesthetic character of the buildings in those neighborhoods.

But according to Michael Molovinsky, a landlord who owns two properties in the proposed district and two more in Old Allentown, HARB's decisions can be arbitrary and harmful.

"Unreasonable" and "arrogant" are words Molovinsky uses to describe the board. "Cliquish" was the word he used to describe the West Park Civic Association, which promotes the district.

He said he and others see the district as an attempt by association President D. Scott Armstrong to "micromanage the neighborhood."

Armstrong, whose pink-signed front door is in the same row of Turner Street homes as one of Molovinsky's yellow-signed apartments, said he pleads guilty to the charge.

"I want the neighborhood to be clean and litter free," Armstrong said. "I want the drug dealers out. Are we supposed to have Easter egg hunts and ignore other problems?"

Molovinsky, a former neighborhood resident who now lives in the Parkland School District, said the neighborhood does not need an overhaul. It is already middle class and well-maintained.

Any benefits that may be derived from having a historic district are canceled out by property owners forfeiting some control over each house's destiny.

"The neighborhood has a history of exemplary maintenance and we trust the owners to continue that," Molovinsky said.

Armstrong accuses Molovinsky and other opponents of the district of deliberately spreading lies and misinformation about what the historic district will mean to property owners.

"A lot of people who are opposed to it are trying to instill fear," said Ross P. Marcus, Allentown's community development director.

But the record indicates the fear is unwarranted. Out of 338 cases the board has heard since 1996, it has denied only seven applications. Marcus also said the historic districts also have been an apparent boon to home resale prices in both neighborhoods.

Between 1978 and 1997 the average sale price of single-family residential properties in Allentown increased by 93 percent, Marcus said. But in Old Allentown the average price increased by 143 percent; in Old Fairgrounds, 128 percent.

HARB member Karen Ramsey concedes that the board has done a poor job in describing its role to the public. Perhaps that is why the board has a negative reputation, she said.

But in reality, she said, the board tries to help people, even providing free architectural and contracting advice. Last month, she said, the board saved one woman thousands of dollars.

The homeowner had been convinced by an aluminum-siding salesman that she could not afford to repair her brick-face to HARB satisfaction. But that was not the case.

"Of all the people who come before us," Ramsey said, "I think most of them would tell you we try to bend over backwards to try to be as accommodating as we can within the limits of the ordinance."